Computer Science 12
Week 1
Sunday, January 31, 2010
- Course information
- General tutorials on Microsoft Word 2007
- Excel tutorials
- HTML tutorials
- Assignment 1 (first part due next week)
- Other important information, needed this week
- Jerry Waxman's course notes – available at the Copy Center under Gino’s Pizza, across Kissena Blvd from QC
- Exploring Microsoft Word by Grauer and Barber
- Exploring Microsoft Excel by Grauer and Barber
- Exploring Microsoft Access by Grauer and Barber
- Websites of other Computer Science 12 instructors: (1) Jerry Waxman and (2) Joe Svitak. The latter site includes Hands-on exercises (downloadable .exe file) and sample exams. (Note that this course, as taught by me, will be organized somewhat differently from the course as taught by other instructors.)
- Companion website for the Grauer and Barber textbooks (and the author's page)
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General tutorials on Microsoft Word 2007
Below are some general tutorials on Microsoft Word, with an emphasis on matters relevant to writing academic papers:
- Microsoft Word 2007 FAQ - Indiana University of Pennsylvania
- Microsoft Word 2007/2008 - University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire
- Word 2007 Tutorial - Florida Gulf Coast University
- Complex Documents in Microsoft Word in Intermediate Users Guide to Microsoft Word by Charles Kyle Kenyon, with an emphasis on how to create legal documents, which are similar to academic papers in various ways
- Microsoft Word 2007 Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials - About.com
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General tutorials on Excel 2007:
- Spreadsheets on About.com, including Basic Excel 2007 Spreadsheet Tutorial
- Microsoft Excel 2007 Tutorial by Denise Etheridge
- Excel tutorial - Vertex42
- Excel 2007 Tutorial - Florida Gulf Coast University
- Excel 2007 (Windows) Tutorial - Brown University
- Microsoft Excel 2007 Tips
On the use of formulas:
- Basic Excel 2007 Formula Tutorial on About.com
- Building Basic Formulas in Excel 2007 by Paul McFedries
- Combining arithmetic operators in the Microsoft Excel 2007 Course on the Home and Learn site.
- Calculation operators and precedence on Microsoft's site
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Here are links to some HTML tutorials:
- W3schools.com HTML tutorial - includes lots of reference material
- Getting started with HTML on the website of the World Wide Web Consortium (the nearest thing to an official governing body deciding standards for the web - see W3C HTML Activities on W3Schools.com)
- The Pocket HTML Tutorial
- HTML tutorials - WebReference.com
- HTML for Beginners - HTML Primer
- Non-Technical Introduction and HTML 4.01 Tags on the HTML Goodies site
- HTML Tutorial - The Computer Technology Documentation Project
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Assignment 1 (preparing to write a paper - first step due Thursday, February 11, 2010)
Obtain Jerry Waxman's CS 12 lecture notes, available at the Copy Center under Gino’s Pizza, across Kissena Blvd from QC. During the next week and a half, skim through the first third of the notes (up to but not including the lectures on Excel) and choose a topic for the paper that you'll be asked to write. Email me, by no later than Thursday, February 11, about the topic you have chosen.
Then reasearch the paper using Jerry Waxman's notes plus at least one other printed (offline) source plus at least two websites. Send me email containing a list of your sources by no later than Thursday, February 18.
The first draft of your paper must be finished by Sunday, February 28. Bring your first draft with you to class on that day (either on a flash drive or by emailing it to yourself) and again on Sunday, March 7. We will show you how to use various Microsoft Word 2007 features to make the paper look nicer.
Your first draft, which must be finished by February 28, should include at least one quote from each of your sources, and should have at least three sections with headings. We will then show you how to do citations, footnotes, bibliography, index, and table of contents, using Microsoft 2007 features which make these chores easy.
The paper itself should be six to eight pages long, double spaced, with a font size anywhere between 12 and 18. The final version of the paper must have a table of contents at the beginning, an index at the end, and properly formatted footnotes (which will place themselves automatically at the bottom of the relavant page), citations, a bibliography, and at least three other sections whose titles will appear in the automatically generated table of contents at the beginning. The paper must be an original paper, not plagiarized. (Warning: BlackBoard includes the ability to search automatically for possible plagiarism.)
The final version of the paper will then be due on Sunday, March 14.
Your first steps will be to choose the topic, gather sources, and tell me about the topic and the sources by emailing me at the following address (not any other email address of mine, please):
dnixon-cs12@nyclocal.net
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Other important information, needed this week
- ADS account signup
- CUNY Portal, including access to Blackboard after you log in. See also CUNY portal information.
- Queens College student email
- Queens College main website. To find your way around, see the site map.
- Academic Calendars according to the Registrar's office
- Weekend College
- Queens College Computer Science Department
- Google (web search engine) - needed to find websites to cite in the paper you'll be writing
- Policies Governing Use of Queens College Information Technology
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